


An Easy Target

by Asher_Ephraim



Series: The Way It Goes [1]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Difficult Decisions, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Facials, Humiliation, M/M, Non-Consensual Blow Jobs, Office Blow Jobs, Podfic Available, Power Imbalance, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sexual Coercion, Walk Of Shame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:07:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22863751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asher_Ephraim/pseuds/Asher_Ephraim
Summary: Ensign Dopheld Mitaka has wanted a posting to the bridge since he entered the Academy. Now that he has a shot at it, he finds his dream carries a price he wasn't prepared to pay.
Relationships: Armitage Hux & Dopheld Mitaka, Dopheld Mitaka/Tritt Opan, Edrison Peavey & Dopheld Mitaka
Series: The Way It Goes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2040222
Comments: 8
Kudos: 19





	An Easy Target

At least Mitaka makes it to the men’s room before he loses it. As the door shuts behind him, his hands start shaking and his breaths come short and fast.

He looks in the mirror and it hits him all at once, along with the sight of his stunned eyes and puffy lips.

It happened, and there’s no denying it.

He removes his cap and, pulling his gloves off using his teeth, places them inside. Setting the cap on the edge of the washbasin he leans over it, examining his reflection through the film of tears he won’t be able to keep in.

There are spots of come on his chin and his collar. It seems he’d been overly hopeful in thinking he’d wiped it all away as he left the captain’s office. He doesn’t even want to think of the man’s name. The first tear hits the basin, and all illusions of keeping his shit together come crumbling down.

“Mitaka?” a voice quieries from the vicinity of the doorway.

His fingers grip the sides of the sink at the sound of his name but he doesn’t face the source. He nods, hoping the man will accept his acknowledgement and go about his business.

There’s a sigh instead. “Look, Ensign. You’re going to have to toughen up, or they’ll chew you up and spit you out.”

That’s when he turns to recognise Captain Peavey standing just inside the washroom. “They already have,” he whispers hoarsely. His throat still feels scratchy.

_Open your fucking throat or I’ll do it for you._

Peavey swallows. Hard. The set of his shoulders softens. He must have seen the spunk. “Ah, shite,” he says. He takes a step closer. Mitaka tenses. This is all he needs right now: a confrontation with another superior.

But Peavey’s expression is all wrong for that. “Fucking hell,” he mutters. “Who did this?”

Mitaka shakes his head, turns back to the mirror and realises there’s a full streak of jizz in his hair by his left temple. Would it have killed Opan to aim a little better? Honestly, Mitaka would rather have swallowed it than end up with a messy facial like this. Even if he’d wanted to get on his knees in the first place. Which he hadn’t.

“Opan,” he rasps.

“Bloody creep.” Peavey reaches into his inner jacket pocket and removes a handkerchief. “Here. Use this. Unless you want to report it, that is.”

“I’m not an idiot,” Mitaka snaps. “Just… weak.”

Peavey’s frown deepens. “You’re no such thing.”

The door slides open again and the ensign freezes, but Peavey moves quickly to block entrance. “Sorry, you’ll have to use the facilities on Dorn-deck,” he explains. “Bio-hazard in here, if you catch my meaning.”

There’s an exasperated sound from the other party, but soon enough the door shuts again. Peavey turns back to Dopheld and offers, “I have the clearance codes to lock it if you want.”

He nods and watches as the captain punches in an override sequence.

“All right, then. Let’s get you cleaned up.”

_Let’s paint that pretty face of yours._

Dopheld wipes his tears away first but his hands aren’t steady enough to manage the main task himself, so Peavey takes the cloth back and dips a corner into the running water.

“May I?”

He nods. “Just get it off me.” The things he does for this career, for the Order. The punishing physical training regimen, the long nights studying, the friendships that faded under the strain and competition, the romantic relationships that never cleared the ground. And now this.

“Where did it happen?” Peavey asks as he gently dabs at Dopheld’s jawline.

“His office,” Dopheld answers, lifting his chin to make Peavey’s job easier.

“Why were you meeting?” The tone of the question betrays no hint of judgement, no implication of _Well, what were you doing alone with him anyway?_

“To discuss my possible assignment to the bridge team.”

“Is that something you want?”

He nods fervently. “So badly. For ages, too.”

“Ah. He used that as leverage.”

_Show me how much you want this. No, don’t give me a prepared speech. Just get on your knees._

Peavey continues speaking as he mops up the ensign’s face. “It doesn’t mean you’re weak, Mitaka.”

“Fine. An easy target, then.”

Peavey gives him a half-smile. “In as much as you’re a young, low-ranking officer and new to the _Finalizer_ , I’ll grant you that.”

“Why are you being so kind?”

The man shrugs. “Predatory behaviour has always upset me.”

“Were you the kid who broke up fights in the schoolyard?”

Peavey nods. “Yes. I never could ignore that sort of thing, much less cheer it on.”

Dopheld sighs. “I’d rather hoped that graduating top of my class would put an end to the bullying.”

“There are always entitled arseholes who will attempt to take what they want. And unfortunately the Order’s mechanism for dealing with them is severely lacking.”

_Quit struggling and think of the bridge. No use pretending you haven’t done this before._

“Kriff,” Dopheld hisses as a potential repercussion hits him out of nowhere. “He’s the one screening candidates for Hux. What if he tells the general what I did?”

“You mean what he did to you?” Peavey suggests as a correction.

“That’s not how he’ll phrase it, and you know that. He’ll say I propositioned him to improve my chances.” Dopheld shuts his eyes. “I’ll just be the slut who traded his body in hopes of climbing the ranks.”

Peavey’s frown deepens. “He might not be willing to risk it. There must be security footage, and if that came out—”

“It won’t, I’m sure. He’s probably already destroyed it.”

“Well, how would that look? Especially since you don’t have the access to interfere with security records.”

“I don’t know,” Mitaka admits, hearing a dangerous panic developing in his own voice. “I don’t even know what I can do. I just…” He gulps harshly enough that it makes a clicking sound. “I just need to think.”

“Sure. I’m sorry. I’ll be quiet if that will help.”

“Thank you.” He concentrates on regulating his breathing while Peavey tosses the soiled handkerchief in the rubbish, produces a comb from yet another inside jacket pocket, and starts in on setting the ensign’s hair aright. The captain hums a little tune as he does so, and Mitaka finds it oddly soothing.

And yet, he can still hear Opan’s voice in his ears.

_Not much longer now, Mitaka. You’ll have what you want and so will I._

He’d been preparing himself for a mouthful of unwanted come when the captain instructed him to sit back, tilt his face up, and keep his mouth open. He shouldn’t have been surprised, considering that everything proceeding it seemed to have been designed for maximum denigration. The patronising words, the way he wasn’t even permitted to choose pace or depth, the fact that Opan hadn’t removed a single piece of his uniform and only bothered to open his fly.

“There. I think we’re all set,” Peavey announces.

Mitaka watches himself nod in the mirror. “Thank you, Captain.”

**. . .**

“General Hux, sir?”

Hands still clasped behind his back at parade rest, Hux turns to face him.

Snapping a crisp salute, he recites, “Ensign Dopheld Mitaka reporting to duty.”

“Ah, Ensign. Good morning and congratulations on securing your assignment. The field for this post was quite competitive.”

Indeed. He tries not to recall too vividly what he’d let happen for the sake of this opportunity, but he can once again feel the durasteel grip of Opan’s fingers curled in his hair, leading his head back and forth.

“Thank you, sir. Permission to speak?”

“Granted,” Hux allows.

“I look forward to working under you, sir. I’m sure you hear this sort of thing a great deal, but this has been my dream since I entered the Academy.” He examines Hux’s face for a sign that the general knows about Opan, but the man simply gives him a tight-lipped smile and a nod.

“Your enthusiasm is welcome here, Ensign.”

This is sufficient, he tells himself. He made it here, just like Opan had promised. He just isn’t sure whether he has finished paying for it.

“Walk with me,” the general instructs him. Mitaka falls in step with his commander, although with his shorter legs he has to hurry to meet Hux’s brisk pace.

“Captain Opan gave you quite a glowing review,” Hux states cautiously once they’re out of earshot of any potential witnesses.

Mitaka feels instantly unsteady. Hux is going to bring it up, is going to reprimand him for it, or even worse, pull Mitaka into a side room and use him like the office slut he now is.

Hux slows to a stop and turns to face him. “Look. Ensign. This will be the only time I mention this, but it bears saying.”

Somehow, Mitaka manages to nod.

“I am aware of the unenviable position you found yourself in, and I regret that it happened. You deserved this assignment on merit alone, but Opan took advantage of the combination of your ambition and vulnerability.”

“Thank you, sir,” the ensign stammers. Hux’s words weren’t at all what he was expecting or fearing.

“I wish I’d had warning beforehand, but I hadn’t and I cannot undo it.”

Mitaka notes that Hux’s gloved hands have curled into fists. The general is genuinely upset about this, and the discovery touches him, the way Peavey’s show of kindness had.

“I know firsthand what it is to want something desperately only to be informed at the last moment that its price is far steeper than expected. Because when I was a lieutenant, I paid the same price.”

“Oh,” the ensign says aloud, his surprise getting the better of him. He stares openly at Hux, one of the most powerful men in the galaxy, and realises he wasn’t always so. Once he had been a junior officer in possession of little more than aspirations and tenacity. And he had made the same decision as Mitaka: to stay in the room, sink to his knees, and do whatever it took to obtain what he yearned for. “Thank you, sir.”

“Now, Ensign Mitaka. I believe it’s time to get to work.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] An Easy Target](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24323419) by [Orson_Bennett](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orson_Bennett/pseuds/Orson_Bennett)




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